What can we expect for the fast-moving telecommunications market this year?
There are many predictions. I started looking for information from Twelve 2012 Predictions For The Telecom Industry and Top 12 Hot Design Technologies for 2012 articles. Then I did some more research on what is happening on the field and decided to make my own list of what is expected this year. You can go to the original information sources by clicking the links to see where all this information comes from.
The global telecommunications services market will grow at a 4% rate in 2012 (was 7% in 2011).
Mobile growth does not stop. The number of global mobile subscriptions will pass the 6 billion mark in February. India will pass China to become the world’s largest mobile market in terms of subscriptions.
The mobile handset market will surpass the $200 billion mark. Smartphones are most heavily used by people under 45, and that age group increasingly sees the smartphone or tablet as a portal to Facebook and Twitter, among other social networks. The demand for the chips that generate and process that data in smartphones is increasing (sales of smartphone applications processors surged to $2.2 billion in the third quarter of 2011). Six Companies Want Supremacy On The Smartphones Chip Market! Qualcomm Look Out!
There is lots of competition on mobile OS marker, but I expect that thing continue pretty much as 2011 ended: Android continues to boom, RIM and Microsoft decline. Symbian’s future is uncertain although Symbian started and finished 2011 as the undisputed king of mobile OSs (33.59%). Windows Phone will try to get to market and Leaked Windows Phone Roadmap gives us a peek into the future. Java Micro Edition making a comeback according to the NetApplications report because large number of low-cost feature phones. The real mobile application battle lines of 2012 will be drawn across the landscape of HTML5.Tizen open source project tries to push to mobile Linux market (first version Q1 2012) with ideas from Meego, LiMo and WebOS. Cars and smartphones start to communicate using MirrorLink technology to allow new features.
Mobile campaigns to be hot in 2012 presidential race article tells that though mobile advertising not seen much on the campaign trail, mobile strategy is expected to be important for attracting younger voters. Social networks played an important role in the last U.S. presidential election, but the explosive growth in smartphone usage and the introduction of tablets could make or break the candidates for president in 2012. Expect to see specialized apps to help campaign groupies follow the candidates.
Text messaging has been very profitable business for mobile phone operators and making them lots of money. Text Messaging Is in Decline in Some Countries tell that all signs point to text messaging’s continuing its decline. There has been already decline in Finland, Hong Kong and Australia. The number of text messages sent by cellphone customers in USA is still growing, but that growth is gradually slowing, “SMS erosion” is expected to hit AT&T and Verizon in this year or next years. The fading allure of text messaging is most likely tied to the rise of alternative services, which allow customers to send messages free using a cellphone’s Internet connection.
EU politicians want to ban roaming charges according to Computer Sweden magazine article. If the proposal becomes law in the EU, it takes away slippery roaming charges for mobile data (could happen earliest at summer 2012, but I expect that it will take much more time). Roaming robbery to end – 2015 article tells that the goal is that the mobile roaming fees should be completely abolished the 2015th.
Near Field Communication (NFC) is becoming available in many mobile phones and new flexibility via organic materials can help in implementing NFC. NFC-enabled SIM cards are expected to become a worldwide standard. Electronic wallet in smartphones probably takes a step forward with this. Google, opened the game with Google Wallet service. According to research firm ABI Research estimates that in 2012 NFC phones is growing 24 million to 80 million units. There is still years to wait until mass market on NFC wallets starts. ABI Research estimates that there is 552 million NFC enabled devices at year 2016.
The 4G technology WiMax will see the beginning of its end in Asia. Like operators in other regions, Asian operators will opt for the rival 4G technology LTE instead.
The number of active (installed) PCs worldwide will pass the 2 billion mark. Broadband penetration continues to increase. Broadband penetration of the world’s population will pass the 10% mark globally. IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) penetration of the world’s population will pass the 1% mark. Broadband technologies are fundamentally transforming the way we live. UN wants two-thirds of the world online by 2015.
Today’s Cable Guy, Upgraded and Better-Dressed article tells that the cable guy is becoming sleeker and more sophisticated, just like the televisions and computers he installs. The nearly saturated marketplace means growth for cable companies must come from all the extras like high-speed Internet service, home security, digital recording devices and other high-tech upgrades.
Ethernet displaces proprietary field buses. As Ethernet displaces proprietary field buses to facilitate the operation of the digital factory. Ethernet switches are the ubiquitous building block of any intelligent network. Ethernet has also become the de facto networking technology in industrial automation even in mission-critical local networks. Modern Ethernet switches have added significant new functionality to Ethernet while decreasing port prices. Ethernet for Vehicles also becomes reality largely to serve the expected boom of camera-based applications in cars.
Operators’ growth will increasingly depend on their having a cloud computing strategy, an approach for the high-growth IT service market and a clear value proposition for the enterprise market. Data center technologies will be hot topic. 10GBase-T Technology will become technically and economically feasible interface option on data center servers. 10GBase-T Technology allows you to use RJ45 connectors and unshielded twisted pair cabling to provide 10Mbps, 100Mbps, 1Gbps, and 10Gbps data transmission, while being backward-compatible with prior generations.
40/100 Gbit/s Ethernet will be a hot topic. Carriers and datacenters have been clamoring for the technology to expand their core backbone networks. 2012–A Return to Normalcy and Pragmatic, Power Conscious 100G article mentions that in 2010 and 2011, the industry saw the first real roll-outs of 100G transport solutions based on Coherent Detection and FPGA-based Framers. In 2012 we’ll start to see 100G taking a bigger place in the build out of new and existing networks around the world. The initial deployments of 100G are clearly too costly and too power hungry to be widely deployed as the primary transport technology, so optical transport marketplace will move to much lower power and lower cost Direct Detection optical transport solutions. The average WDM link for 10G is dissipating about 3.5W per optical module, the average WDM link per 100G is dissipating about about 100W.
5 Major Changes Facing the Internet in 2012 article tells that 2012 is poised to go down in Internet history as one of the most significant 12-month periods from both a technical and policy perspective since the late 1990s. This year the Internet will face or can face several milestones: root servers may have a new operator, new company could operate the .com registry, up to 1000 new top-level domains will start being introduced, additional 10,000 Web sites will support IPv6 and Europe will run out of IPv4 addresses.
No IPv6 Doomsday In 2012. Yes, IPv4 addresses are running out, but a Y2K-style disaster/frenzy won’t be coming in 2012. Of course there’s a chance that panic will ensue when Europe’s RIPE hands out its last IPv4 addresses this summer, but ‘most understand that they can live without having to make any major investments immediately. Despite running out of IPv4 addresses we will be able to continue to use IPv4 techniques (Asia depleted all of its IPv4 address space already April 2011). ISP’s and hosting companies will not run out of IPs. This only means that the price per IP will start to slowly grow. Forward thinking enterprises can spend the year preparing for the new IPv6 protocol (USA is expected run out of addresses next year). Comcast has said it will offer production-quality IPv6 services across its nationwide network in 2012.
Operators start to pay more attention to the business opportunity of “M2M” (machine-to-machine connections). Investment and innovation in M2M (think smart energy meters and fleet trackers for logistics) will follow.
Smart Grid technologies include smart power management and architecture system components are already hot. Smart meter deployment on the rise globally. The global power utilities are the next mega-market moving from analog, standalone systems to digital networked technology. The opportunities are huge in everything from wireless components in smart meters to giant power electronics. First cut of some very basic framework standards have been drafted and lots of works needs to be done (ensure safety!). Forward-looking utilities and such vendors have now put business units and plans in place. IPv6 is seen as a needed technology in implementing Smart Grid communications. IPV6 has become a buzz word for smart grid firms.
You Will See A Ton Of Hype Around “The Internet Of Things” article tells that “The Internet Of Things” is a catchy term revolving around the idea that most everyday objects around us will be equipped with internet-collected electronics, and this will open up new applications. You Will See A Ton Of Hype Around “The Internet Of Things”, and it is hard to say if The Internet Of Things will be a huge business or a passing fad. NXP Semiconductor’s vision of Internet of Things starts with lightbulbs. Wireless sensor networks will get attention. EE Times article Top ten Embedded Internet articles for 2011 gives you links to articles that help you to catch on those topics.
Security issues were talked about lot on 2011 and I expect the discussion will continue actively during year 2012. There are still many existing security issues to fix and new issues will come up all the time.
802 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
MediaTek lands 2.5G handset solution orders from Nokia, say sources
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120521PD204.html?mod=2
MediaTek reportedly has landed orders for 2.5G handset solutions from Nokia with shipments to begin in the third quarter of 2012, according to industry sources. MediaTek declined to comment.
With a revised goal of shipping 75 million 3G solutions in 2012, mostly to first-tier handset makers in China, MediaTek is expected to post strong revenue growth in the second half of the year, the sources noted.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Extensible processing in mobile backhaul networks
http://www.eetimes.com/design/communications-design/4373216/Extensible-processing-in-mobile-backhaul-networks
Mobile backhaul has come to the forefront within cellular communications networks due to the rapid growth in data traffic. Traditionally designed and optimized to carry voice traffic, mobile backhaul is being overhauled to optimize network efficiencies and eliminate bottlenecks in carrying data and video content.
In order to increase bandwidth and efficiencies, there is an increasing reliance on rolling out fiber to the cell towers.However, given the majority of the growth in cellular traffic is happening in the urban and suburban areas where fiber media is not often practical due to trenching costs and reach issues, backhauling cellular traffic over air media continues to play a dominant role. As the cellular industry prepares to install small cells for the much-needed capacity enhancements, there is a growing reliance on line of sight microwave and millimeter wave links and non line of sight air technologies for coverage below building clutter.
Perpetual growth in the demand for data and video content over cellular networks requires careful network planning and engineering to meet emerging demands as well as network preparedness for the future. Adding appropriate end-to-end network intelligence and associated capabilities to effectively monetize the network is an essential part of this process to secure suitable returns on CapEx spending.
FPGA technology is widely deployed in mobile backhaul and plays a leading role in the continuous improvements of underlying algorithms driving network bandwidth and efficiencies. Today, FPGA technology is combining high performance multi-core processor systems with the strengths of programmability, flexibility and scalability of the FPGA fabric
Mobile backhaul networks are loosely defined as a set of network hops from the cellular towers to the aggregation node. The aggregated traffic is transported to the operator switching site typically using a high speed fiber link. Line of sight microwave links presently dominate mobile backhaul networks. These microwave radios are designed to use a single carrier with 14/26/56/112 MHz channel width between 6 GHz and 42 GHz frequency microwave domains. Microwave links can run over several miles, and can achieve 50/100/250/500/1000 Mbps data throughput using 1024 QAM modulation.
There is a need to improve data throughput over microwave and millimeter radio links by increasing spectral efficiency and improved reliability by using better error correction schemes (air essentially has a poor bit error rate).
A mobile backhaul unit typically supports several Ethernet links for protection switching, as well as optional multiple T1/E1 links for maintaining legacy TDM traffic. The traffic is forwarded between these links and radio channels using an internal Ethernet/TDM switch with integrated or external packet processing and quality of service (QoS)/traffic management functions. The packet processing and traffic management functions build the needed intelligence to regulate user data in accordance with the service contracts.
Ingress Ethernet ports are carrier grade capable by using IEEE802.1ag or ITU Y.1731 based operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM) functionality for connectivity fault detection and performance management to enable guaranteed service level agreements.
In the packet processing and traffic management blocks, packets are parsed and classified into several classes based on 3 bit priority field in VLAN tag or 3 bit EXP field in MPLS header or 6 bit differentiated service code points using Type of Service field in the IPv4 header or traffic class field in the IPv6 header.
Packets in excess of the specified rate are delayed or buffered and dropped in case of buffer overflows. Hierarchical queuing and scheduling using a traffic manager is needed to provide a fine grain traffic control.
The innovation of combining powerful multi-core processor-based systems with the technological strengths of FPGAs is setting the stage for building tightly integrated, power efficient, flexible, and lower cost system solutions on a chip that can be readily programmed and scaled to meet the fast changing, next generation network requirements.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Vodafone’s cash mountain rocked by eurozone emergency
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/22/vodafone_numbers/
Vodafone is rolling in cash thanks to a healthy year in the US and stability in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands. However the telco is still only drawing 14.5 per cent of its £43bn service revenue from mobile data, despite the fact that it represents the majority of traffic carried.
Elsewhere the growth was in data, as smartphone penetration continues to increase (26.9 per cent in Europe now), and that’s driving customers towards contracts, which is good for Vodafone: contract customers always spend more money. Revenue from data hit £6.2bn, about £1bn more than the cash collected for text messages.
Elsewhere the growth was in data, as smartphone penetration continues to increase (26.9 per cent in Europe now), and that’s driving customers towards contracts, which is good for Vodafone: contract customers always spend more money. Revenue from data hit £6.2bn, about £1bn more than the cash collected for text messages.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Open Garden Lets You Crowdsource Your Mobile Connectivity
http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/21/open-garden-lets-you-crowdsource-your-mobile-connectivity/
What if you couldn’t just share your Internet connection with the few WiFi devices tethered to your phone or hotspot, but with pretty much everybody around you? Open Garden, which is launching at TechCrunch Disrupt today, lets you create a mesh network that ties together all the Open Garden-enabled devices around you into one large network that then automatically shares Internet access and bandwidth between all of these devices. Basically, Open Garden wants to become a crowdsourcing platform for mobile connectivity.
For now, Open Garden works on Android, Windows and Mac (it will be available in the Google Play store after today’s Disrupt demo). In the long run, Open Garden also hopes to make an iOS application available.
One especially nifty aspect of this project is that Open Garden used its own networking and P2P expertise to built (and patent) its own discovery mechanisms so devices that run its software can easily detect each other.
Soon, says Benoliel, it will also support multi-channel bundling to create a higher data throughput by using multiple on-ramps. Ideally, this could even work if your phone isn’t on a mesh network, as it would allow you to use a WiFi and 3G or 4G network simultaneously. For now, though, the company’s focus is squarely on getting its beta out into the market and making the overall experience as seamless as possible.
The obvious question about a project like this, of course, is about how the carriers will react.
Ideally, of course, an ad-hoc mesh network like this could also help carriers offload more data from their 3G and 4G networks. While the company didn’t disclose any details, Benoliel told me that Open Garden already has an agreement with one “forward-looking European carrier.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Internet of Things has been talked about for many years, but even though communications technologies grow ever cheaper and more efficient, there are still only a handful of internet connected devices. Those that do exist are expensive and offer limited benefits for the user.
Electric Imp was created specifically to address the problems of connecting devices to the internet.
The Imp uses WiFi and a cloud service to make it easier than ever before for vendors to internet-enable their products, bringing the power of the internet to places and devices it could never reach before.
Developer preview Imps and developer kits will be available beginning in late June, 2012.
Imp-enabled products will be available later in 2012 from a variety of vendors.
The Imp card itself will retail for $25. Discounted cards for bundling are available to manufacturers.
We recognize that killer apps of the future don’t just come from established companies, and that makers are a wellspring of invention. The Imp makes no distinction between a device that sells a million units and a hand-crafted prototype.
In essence, the Imp provides an easy, integrated way to connect almost any hardware device both to other devices and to internet services. It’s more than just a WiFi card, or even a WiFi module with processing built in – it’s an integrated platform that deals with the drudgery of connectivity, allowing you to concentrate on the application instead of the mechanics.
The Imp itself is very small – 32mm x 24mm x 2.1mm – but packs a lot inside.
For starters, there’s industry standard 802.11b/g/n WiFi, complete with WEP, WPA and WPA2 encryption, along with a great antenna.
Next, there’s the processor. A Cortex-M3 core
Finally, there’s the I/O. Though there are only six pins available for application use, they’re six very capable pins. UARTs, I2C, SPI, analog in and out, PWMs, GPIOs… all selectable under software control.
you develop your code in a browser-based IDE and can compile and run your code on the Imp – wherever it is in the world – in under a second. The Imp even sends logging back to your browser.
Data passes to and from the service over a TLS encrypted interface, and can take many forms including scalars, strings and tuples. An open API on the server allows devices to communicate with other communications networks (email, SMS, twitter, etc), web pages (displaying data and controls), APIs to communicate with other services (RESTful API, TCP pipes) and of course soft nodes, that can perform server-side processing on data that would be inconvenient to do device-side.
Source: http://www.electricimp.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google: We’ve acquired Motorola Mobility
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/weve-acquired-motorola-mobility.html
The phones in our pockets have become supercomputers that are changing the way we live. It’s now possible to do things we used to think were magic, or only possible on Star Trek–like get directions right from where we are standing; watch a video on YouTube; or take a picture and share the moment instantly with friends.
It’s why I’m excited to announce today that our Motorola Mobility deal has closed. Motorola is a great American tech company that has driven the mobile revolution, with a track record of over 80 years of innovation, including the creation of the first cell phone
It’s a well known fact that people tend to overestimate the impact technology will have in the short term, but underestimate its significance in the longer term. Many users coming online today may never use a desktop machine, and the impact of that transition will be profound–as will the ability to just tap and pay with your phone. That’s why it’s a great time to be in the mobile business, and why I’m confident Dennis and the team at Motorola will be creating the next generation of mobile devices that will improve lives for years to come.
Posted by Larry Page, CEO
Tomi Engdahl says:
Corning demonstrates 13,288 km, 40-channel fiber-optic transmission
http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/print/volume-48/issue-05/newsbreaks/corning-demonstrates-13288-km-40-channel-fiber-optic-transmission.html
A group at Corning Incorporated (Corning, NY) has demonstrated ultralong-haul fiber-optic transmission spanning more than 10,000 km in two different experiments—both of which involve 112 Gbit/s non-return-to-zero polarization-multiplexed quadrature phase-shift keying (NRZ-PM-QPSK) signals; 40 channels; all-Raman amplification; and ultralow-loss, large-effective-area optical fibers. The first transmission consisted of 100 km spans
The fiber employed for the first experiment was the company’s commercially available Vascade EX 2000 fiber, which has an average attenuation of 0.163 dB/km.
The receiver contained a tunable optical filter, a polarization- and phase-diverse digital coherent receiver, analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), and a computer to process the sampled waveforms using standard algorithms. The system is intended for transoceanic use.
Tomi Engdahl says:
FCC boss backs usage-based pricing for cable Internet access
http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/22/11815105-fcc-boss-backs-usage-based-pricing-for-cable-internet-access
The head of the Federal Communications Commission said he supports cable companies’ charging for Internet based on how much a subscriber uses the service, and also welcomed a cable industry initiative to share Wi-Fi hotspots around the country.
“Usage-based pricing would help drive efficiency in the networks,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said on Tuesday, speaking at the cable industry’s annual NCTA Show.
Cable providers have explored usage-priced pricing, but the idea has not been well received. There have been concerns that the companies were trying to raise their fees.
Comcast Corp, the No. 1 U.S. cable operator, said last week that it would conduct a trial of usage-based pricing in two markets.
Time Warner Cable, the No. 2 U.S. cable company, launched a trial of usage-based pricing in 2009 but was forced to end it after negative feedback from consumer groups. It launched a new trial in February.
The cable companies are determined to keep pace with consumers’ demands by adding more flexible and mobile features to their service plans.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft Security Intelligence Report
July through December, 2011
http://download.microsoft.com/download/C/9/A/C9A544AD-4150-43D3-80F7-4F1641EF910A/Microsoft_Security_Intelligence_Report_Volume_12_English.pdf
Internet technologies provide a basis upon which to achieve huge efficiencies in communications, storage, data processing and business tractions. Given the ever-increasing use of the internet (2 billion users in 2011 with forecasts of another billion users coming online in the next four years), it is no surprise that bad actors are using this near-ubiquitous communications medium for their own ends.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Exclusive: HP’s core webOS Enyo team is going to Google
http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/24/3042441/hp-enyo-google
The HP team responsible for Enyo — webOS’s HTML5-based application framework that debuted on the TouchPad — will be leaving the company and starting at Google shortly, The Verge has learned. What this means for the future of Open webOS is unclear; Enyo and the developers supporting it are central to HP’s open source strategy for the operating system going forward, and it’s hard to say whether this move will have any effect on the planned late 2012 release for version 1.0.
What the Enyo team will do at Google is unknown at this point, but there are several logical landing spots.
Android would obviously be an option
Alternatively, the team could slot into the Chrome group
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia is trying mobile TV in a new way:
Nokia TV comes today
Nokia TV-named application works only for Nokia’s Windows Mobile phones, Nokia, and it is trying to separate Lumia-phone with other Windows-based device manufacturers in mass.
- The application should be first in the world to Finland, because there are good online TV services and high speed access, said Nokia’s Entertainment Services, Director of Jyrki Rosenberg on Thursday at the press conference.
- We want to Finland to learn more through the pilot, but I do not want to say anything about other countries’ launches
This application can be used to view Yle Arena, MTV3 and Channel Four Katsomo Screen TV services. In addition, the range of music channel The Voice and the sports channel URHOtv’s online TV services.
The service requires a 3G or wireless network connection. Programs can not be saved to your phone for copyright reasons.
Nokia partners YLE and MTV3 expect an application from the download rates through the moving tens of thousands of copies in the first year.
TV companies try to show all their content, but especially the Hollywood variety series are missing.
Source:
http://www.itviikko.fi/uutiset/2012/05/25/nokia-tv-tulee-tanaan/201230128/7
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sensor Monitors Patients’ Health in the Cloud
http://www.designnews.com/document.asp?doc_id=244432&cid=NL_Newsletters+-+DN+Daily
A UK-based startup has designed a new device that connects to a cloud-based system to allow a patient’s condition to
be monitored wirelessly by clinicians even when they are not in a hospital or doctor’s office.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook Tries, Tries Again on a Smartphone
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/facebook-tries-tries-again-on-a-smartphone/
Can a software company build its own smartphone? We may find out soon.
This past week, Google completed its acquisition of the hardware maker Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, which could lead to the search giant’s making its own smartphone. But another software titan might be getting into the hardware game as well: Facebook.
Employees of Facebook and several engineers who have been sought out by recruiters there, as well as people briefed on Facebook’s plans, say the company hopes to release its own smartphone by next year.
This would be Facebook’s third effort at building a smartphone
“Mark is worried that if he doesn’t create a mobile phone in the near future that Facebook will simply become an app on other mobile platforms,” a Facebook employee said.
Facebook Is Building The Facebook Phone Right In Front Of Our Eyes
http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-is-building-the-facebook-phone-right-in-front-of-our-eyes-2012-5?op=1
One of the many points of intrigue around Facebook’s future centers on the mobile phone market.
It has been reportedly working on a mobile operating system for its own phone since 2010. The original OS was shelved, then a new team came in, and worked on it again.
But, right in plain view Facebook is assembling the core applications needed for successful smartphone operating system
This week it rolled out “Facebook Camera.” Every smartphone needs a camera application.
It has a “Facebook Messages” application. This would be Facebook’s answer to BBM, iMessage, or even text messages.
It has a Facebook app store. This would be its answer to the App Store, or Google Play.
And it’s reportedly interested in buying Opera. If it is going to have a mobile OS, it’s going to need a web browser.
Other core apps like contacts and a calendar are already baked into Facebook.
The only biggie that’s missing is Maps. Facebook is close with Microsoft, so it could probably get a Bing-based mapping app.
We don’t know when, or even if, Facebook will actually release a phone.
If Facebook Really Goes Into The Mobile Hardware Business, Investors Should Run Away Screaming
http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-phone-is-a-bad-idea-2012-5?op=1
Facebook is poaching ex-Apple engineers to build a smartphone, Nick Bilton of the New York Times reports.
This is the third iteration of Facebook’s smartphone plans–from hardware to software and back to hardware again.
If Facebook is serious about jumping into smartphones with both feet this time, Facebook investors should be very afraid.
Why?
Several reasons:
The move would clearly be defensive, not offensive.
Hardware is an extraordinarily difficult, low-margin, commodity business.
The smartphone “platform” business is already dominated by Apple and Google (Android), and there are already a whole lot of also-rans.
Hardware distribution is critically important, and Facebook also faces vast, entrenched competition there.
Although Facebook might want to be a mobile platform, there’s no obvious need for a Facebook phone.
A full-fledged hardware business would likely radically reduce Facebook’s profit margins. One of the advantages of Facebook’s current business is that it is extraordinarily profitable. The hardware business would likely make it a lot less profitable (per dollar of revenue).
Facebook knows absolutely nothing about making, selling, or supporting hardware. Really–nothing.
That’s just a start.
Facebook already has an “operating system” for mobile–it’s called the social graph.
So instead of building a phone, which seems like a desperate move, Facebook should partner with every operating system and carrier and hardware maker it can to try to embed this social platform within every mobile platform.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ZTE Launches Android Smartphones Featuring 3D Homescreen by Rightware Kanzi UI Solution
Espoo, Finland – May 24, 2012 – Rightware Oy, a leader in embedded 3D user interface (UI) technologies, announced today that ZTE Corporation (“ZTE”), a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, has started the shipment of its latest Android 4.0 smartphones powered by Rightware’s Kanzi® UI Solution.
Rightware’s patent-pending Kanzi UI Solution consists of two product components: Kanzi Studio and Kanzi Engine. Kanzi Engine is an integral part of a device’s software platform, whereas Kanzi Studio is a standalone UI design software enabling rapid creation of innovative and highly attractive 3D user interfaces
Tomi Engdahl says:
LG shows off ‘first’ full HD LCD for smartphones
5in, 440dpi screen, anyone?
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/05/28/lg_demos_first_full_hd_ips_lcd_for_smartphones/
And the latest entry in the ‘how many pixels can we cram into a phone display’ stakes comes from LG which today announced a 5in in-plan switching (IPS) LCD with a 1920 x 1080 resolution.
It’s the first full HD screen for a handset, LG claimed.
This, the company pledged, “significantly advances the cloud computing experience widely considered the next major internet trend”.
You can tell it’s not the engineers that write this stuff, can’t you?
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘We face a fight for the future of the web,’ says Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/we-face-a-fight-for-the-future-of-the-web-says-googles-executive-chairman-eric-schmidt-7782353.html
One of Google’s most senior executives issued a stark warning tonight that the power of the internet to free some of the world’s most oppressed people risks being overturned by autocratic governments who seek to “Balkanise” the web by controlling what can be accessed.
“fight for the future of the web” stating that at least 40 governments are now known to engage in online censorship compared to just four a decade ago.
“Last year we saw in Egypt what happened when a government tried to turn the Internet off,
Using somewhat apocalyptic language, he stated that web users “face the real possibility we could end up living in society in which software silently deletes our voices, our thoughts our culture.”
“Technology will be a great leveller,” he said. “It empowers by its very nature. By ensuring universal access – to the cloud, to each other, to the world – we will create greater freedom and opportunity for all.
A smartphone which currently costs $400, he predicted, might be as cheap as $20 in 12 years time.
But the Google executive also issued a series of warnings over where the future of the internet remains acutely vulnerable.
He also expressed concerns about the difficulty citizens have in removing data about themselves from the web, remarking that the Internet currently had no “delete button.”
“A false accusation in your youth used to fade away; now it can remain forever,”
The Google executive has previously expressed reservations about the amount of personal information people leave on the internet
Tomi Engdahl says:
Survey: 8.8% of game developers are making games for Windows Phone 7
http://wmpoweruser.com/survey-8-8-of-game-developers-are-making-games-for-windows-phone-7/
The Game Developer magazine has released the results of its first-ever mobile and social developer technology survey in its May 2012 issue.
The survey as expected found mobile developers overwhelmingly supported iPhone and Android, but also that Windows Phone was the 3rd platform of choice, with 8.8% of developers working on Windows Phone 7 apps, despite the OS only having a market share of around 2% worldwide.
The survey also showed the Unity Engine was the most popular with developers, with more than 50% using this game engine. Hopefully with Windows Phone 8 Microsoft can look at supporting this middleware to make the porting and concurrent development of games on Windows Phone significantly easier.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mobile game developer survey leans heavily toward iOS, Unity
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/169846/Mobile_game_developer_survey_leans_heavily_toward_iOS_Unity.php
Gamasutra sister publication Game Developer magazine has released the results of its first-ever mobile and social developer technology survey in the May 2012 issue.
Unsurprisingly, iOS was the most popular development platform, with 94.6% of surveyed developers releasing games for iOS, followed by Android (70.7%), Windows Phone 7 (8.8%), BlackBerry OS (2.7%), Symbian (2.0%), and Samsung Bada (1.4%).
Unity topped the list of mobile game engines, with 53.1% of developers reporting using Unity compared to 39.8% using a custom engine., 17.7% using Cocos2D, 5.3% using Marmalade, and 5.3% using Corona (this question wasn’t exclusive, so the percentage count adds up to more than 100%).
When it comes to determining which engine features are most important for a developer, “Rapid development time” was ranked as the most important factor, followed by “Flexibility and easy extendability,” “Engine performance,” “Support and documentation,” and “Prior successful use by another team,” respectively.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android- and iOS-Powered Smartphones Expand Their Share of the Market in the First Quarter, According to IDC
http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS23503312
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. May 24, 2012 – Smartphones powered by the Android and iOS mobile operating systems accounted for more than eight out of ten smartphones shipped in the first quarter of 2012 (1Q12).
The share gains mean that Android and iOS have successfully distanced themselves from previous market leaders Symbian and BlackBerry, as well as Linux and Windows Phone 7/Windows Mobile.
“The popularity of Android and iOS stems from a combination of factors that the competition has struggled to keep up with,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
’6,000 RIM jobs at risk’ of a pink slip
Heins source claims layoffs as early as June
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2012/05/28/rim_job_cuts/
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion is threatening to axe thousands of its workers, according to reports.
According to loquacious sources, RIM is now gearing up for a massive global restructuring effort in the next couple of weeks that will result in 2,000 workers losing their jobs, The Globe and Mail writes.
RIM employs about 16,500 people at present
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Angry Birds’, Tango, and ‘PES 2012′ refuse to install on Windows Phones with 256MB RAM
http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/28/3047773/windows-phone-tango-256mb-ram-app-games-restrictions
Microsoft first unveiled its low-cost 256MB of RAM Windows Phone devices at Mobile World Congress earlier this year. Although Microsoft warned parts of Windows Phone would be restricted on handsets with 256MB of RAM, the company said it expected 95 percent of apps would still install and run just fine.
Nokia’s Lumia 610 has started to ship in Europe and a Windows Phone fan site in Spain has discovered that a number of popular apps refuse to install on the handset.
Skype, Tango, Angry Birds, and PES 2012 all refuse to install
Microsoft may claim that only five percent of apps will have difficulties on 256MB of RAM devices, but if these are popular ones, including Angry Birds and Skype, then the company could find it difficult to market the advantages of such low-cost phones.
Tomi Engdahl says:
China’s Huawei, ZTE face EU action on telecom subsidies: FT
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/28/us-eu-china-telecoms-idUSBRE84R00T20120528
(Reuters) – The European Union is set to launch a major trade case against China’s biggest telecom equipment makers, arguing that they have benefited from illegal government subsidies, the Financial Times said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
RIM’s top lawyer joins parade of resignations
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/28/us-rim-jobs-legal-idUSBRE84R0KD20120528
The top lawyer at Research In Motion Ltd has resigned and will soon leave the struggling BlackBerry maker, RIM said on Monday, joining a parade of long-time company executives to depart since Thorsten Heins took over as CEO earlier this year.
The Waterloo, Ontario-based company currently employs around 16,500 people globally. Two sources with close connections to RIM have told Reuters that RIM plans to bring its workforce closer to 10,000 by early next year.
“Thorsten has a very different leadership style,” said one former RIM employee who left several months ago. “He is picking a very specific organizational structure, inner circle, external hires and strategy, and a lot of folks aren’t 100 percent comfortable with it.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
$8.5 Billion Deal for Calling Service Presents a Puzzle
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/technology/microsoft-at-work-on-meshing-its-products-with-skype.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
By some measures, Tony Bates has accomplished a lot at Skype since Microsoft paid $8.5 billion for the Internet calling service.
The statistics tell the story. In seven months, the number of people using the service each month has jumped 26 percent to nearly a quarter of a billion, affirming Skype’s status as one of the crown jewels of consumer Internet services.
But the deal, the biggest acquisition in Microsoft’s history, will ultimately be judged by whether Microsoft can weave the product deeply into its vast product portfolio, providing a superior Skype experience on products as various as Windows PCs and Xboxes.
“It’s still promising and intriguing, but we really haven’t seen it rolled out across the products,” said Bill Whyman, an analyst at ISI, an investment research firm.
One important milestone will come this year, when Skype is expected to release a preliminary version of its calling software that runs on Windows 8, a coming overhaul of Microsoft’s flagship operating system intended to work well with touch-screen computers. The idea that Skype can give Windows and other Microsoft products an edge is the only way the company can justify the high price it paid, analysts say.
The distance has helped Skype stay true to its mission of allowing people to make calls from practically any device connected to the Internet, not just the ones powered by Microsoft software.
“We always want Skype to be first and best on Windows, but certainly a strategic part of the value in communications software is working on all platforms,” Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, said recently in an interview. “We’re committed to that cross-platform support.”
Microsoft plans to integrate Skype into Lync, a Microsoft communications product aimed at businesses. Another priority is making Skype video conferencing work on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console, though that product is not likely to be released this year.
Stephen Elop, the chief executive of Nokia, a maker of Windows Phones, told an audience at a recent conference that “the feedback from operators is they don’t like Skype” because its cheap and free phone calls can steal revenue from traditional phone businesses.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Japan to get Android phone with built-in radiation dosimeter
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/29/radiation_detecting_phone/
Japan’s third network operator, Softbank, has outfitted its latest mass-market handset with a radiation dosimeter, proving that the inscrutable Japanese are just as vulnerable to fear-driven advertising as the rest of us.
But the detector isn’t a gimmick being sold as an extra, such as the one demonstrated by DoCoMo last year, this will be a standard feature of the latest Pantone handset – the most popular model sold by Softbank (iPhone excluded).
The Pantone 5 is made by Sharp, and follows a series of feature phones bearing the same name and range of colours. This version is Android based, and has a waterproof coating while remaining small enough to be “comfortable to hold for women”
A special button on the front of the Pantone 5 launches the radiation detector
the use of microSieverts/hr suggests that the detector is a dosimeter measuring radiation dose from all sources as opposed to an actual Caesium-137 detector which would be expected to read in Becquerels.
The Pantone 5 will sell well in Japan not because there’s a real danger of radiation killing anyone, or even because of media-fuelled paranoia: the handset will instead capitalise on the lack of trust between the Japanese people are their government. Fukushima might not have killed anyone but it got people really frightened, and frightened people will buy things to allay their fears.
Softbank says it wants customers to “feel safe”
Tomi Engdahl says:
EU Commissioner: I Will End Net Neutrality Waiting Game
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/05/29/2058240/eu-commissioner-i-will-end-net-neutrality-waiting-game
“Europeans are a step closer to seeing new net neutrality rules put in place, after the release of an EU regulators’ report on how often ISPs and operators throttle their services. On Tuesday, digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes said the release of the report from by the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) means she will make recommendations to the EU on preserving net neutrality, which aims to make sure ISPs do not unfairly restrict customers from accessing the service or application or their choice.”
Comments:
Let me guess — ISPs cannot restrict access to websites in order to profit, but governments can order ISPs to restrict access to websites to protect the profits of entertainment companies?
“You cannot block any website…… except pornography. Or bittorrent sites. Those you can block and in fact, we DEMAND you block them.”
As the internet becomes more important for global commercial and cultural enrichment, the US insists on stripping away rights and freedoms that we, as Americans, have come to cherish.
From TFA:
Third, consumers also need to know if they are getting Champagne or lesser sparkling wine. If it is not full Internet, it shouldnâ(TM)t be marketed as such; perhaps it shouldnâ(TM)t be marketed as âoeInternetâ at all, at least not without any upfront qualification. Regulators should have that kind of control over how ISPs market the service.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Crazy Geckos: Nitot on Mozilla’s post-Firefox mobile crusade
Open-source handset versus Android and Apple
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/28/boot_to_gecko_mozilla_europe_president/
First came the BlackBerry, bringing the smartphones for suits perfected by RIM to consumers. Next came the iPhone, which quickly hoovered up 23 per cent of the market. But the iPhone came at a price: the freedom of users and coders. It is tightly controlled by Apple, as Adobe quickly found to its cost with Flash.
Next up was Android. In just four years, Android exploited consumers’ desire to poke and stroke their phones to become the world’s most popular smartphone OS – burying the iPhone – with 59 per cent of the market.
Android had a plus: freedom of choice for both coder and consumer thanks to an open-source code base.
Honeycomb changed things: the Android code was yanked back inside the Googleplex as Mountain View asserted control over builds and contributions.
Meanwhile, Android has fragmented.
This makes it very hard for developers to build one version of their app that runs everywhere.
This is exactly what happened to Java on handsets, which paved the way for Apple’s iPhone and… well, you can see where this is headed.
If only there were a smartphone operating system choice which was open source, not tied to one single commercial operation and which used web technologies already established, rather than tailored to the unique needs of the phone.
Now, there is just such as OS – or at least the promise of one – and it comes from the Mozilla Foundation. Mozilla earlier this year unveiled Boot to Gecko (B2G), a Linux-based operating system that runs HTML5 web apps using the Gecko open-source layout engine used in Firefox, which opens up the phone’s onboard systems such as the accelerometer or dialer to the web.
B2G’s Linux drivers allow HTML5 code to talk directly to the phone’s dialer and accelerometer. Currently B2G runs on Qualcomm ARM and Samsung Galaxy SII and the Nexus.
Mozilla Europe president Tristan Nitot is bullish about the concept. “Mobility is the key for the web but also for Mozilla,”
B2G is key to Mozilla for another very important reason: Mozilla needs to get beyond Firefox, which made the group’s name and which now seems to have been eclipsed by Google’s Chrome in the battle to challenge Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
Mozilla has other projects such as Thunderbird and SeaMonkey also on the go, but it’s Firefox that saw Mozilla cross the chasm of recognition to become a real force online
“On the desktop the web is here to stay; the picture of browsers is healthy,” Nitot said. Mobility is a game in play.
“As a citizen of the internet it is extremely scary in that I bought this device and I want to run the software I want. I don’t understand why somebody in beautiful California can tell me what I can and can’t run on this device.”
He refers not just to the fact you must build native apps, but also to the puritanism and myopic adjudications of the Golden State’s app-store police that empowers the smartphone makers as censors.
Mozilla is obeying the first rule of mobile: work with the telco big boys.
“We don’t sell the phone, we partner with those who know how to get the phone into people’s hands. The main idea of B2G is it’s so lightweight with only a Linux core with Firefox on top. For telcos it will be interesting to put them into markets where people can’t afford smartphones. In the past every open-source phone tried to interrupt the US, European market – or Finnish market, in Neo’s case.”
Heilmann warns that installing B2G on a phone today will break your phone and erase the existing copy of Android.
The rule on consumer devices is hard: get it right first time or go home. B2G handsets can’t afford inferior performance.
“With B2G if we have really good product – and it’s a strong focus in the Mozilla culture to have something that’s delightful to use – the rest will follow.”
B2G has early support. Spanish carrier Telefonica plans to deliver B2G handsets in Brazil this year. Nitot says Telefonica is interested because B2G lets it deliver a smartphone at feature-phone prices.
Mozilla will have to hope idealism wins out, and feeds into a belief that a web that’s open to all pays better than a web that locks you in.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Analyzing the world’s 11 biggest handset makers in Q1 2012
http://www.fiercewireless.com/europe/special-reports/analyzing-worlds-11-biggest-handset-makers-q1-2012
The numbers are in, and it’s time to make sense of the data. ABI Research’s Michael Morgan checks out the world’s 11 largest branded cell phone makers in the first quarter of 2012, providing sales data as well as insight into their strategy and competitive position in the market.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook Can’t Have a Phone Until It Becomes an Operating System
http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2012/05/turning-a-platform-into-an-operating-system-a-facebook-phones-biggest-challenge.php
One thing to realize about Facebook is that it is a platform. A platform allows developers and companies to build on top of it, build apps for it and interact with it through a variety of mediums. In that way, Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android are both platforms, but Android and iOS are also operating systems – complex sets of software that connect hardware to the platform. Facebook is a fine platform, but it is not an operating system. And that is going to make the company’s attempt at building a “Facebook Phone” extremely difficult.
One of the biggest problems for Facebook is time. Building a smartphone operating system is tedious work that takes years to even come out with a semi-functional device. In this, Facebook is almost starting from scratch. It did look into building its own phone in 2010, but that project fizzled out. It then thought it might be able to fork Android and put a Facebook skin on top (a la the Kindle Fire tablet) and was rumored to be in discussions with HTC about building a device. That too, apparently, was a nonstarter
Operating systems are hard to build.
So, for the best of companies, releasing an operating system takes two to three years. It is no mistake that the top smartphone OS creators are Apple, Google and Microsoft. These are companies with a lot of money, a lot of resources and a lot of patience.
Facebook, with its $16 billion IPO, now has a lot of money. What it does not have is the resources or patience. It needs people to build its OS, and it cannot afford to be patient because, if we go by the historic timescale, it will be 2015 or later before a real series of Facebook OS smartphones reach the market. That is assuming, of course, that Facebook really wants to enter the hardware space with its own OS and devices and not just fork Android.
As a platform, Facebook has a ton of things going for it. Really, it is one of the most dynamic properties in the history of the Web. Therein lies the rub: Facebook is a platform by the Web, of the Web, for the Web.
Facebook at its core is a browser-based platform with a social background that connects many people on the Web. The plumbing that the company has created in sharing content and people’s lives is impressive. The social graph is the backbone of everything Facebook does
Yet, without Android, Google would be in the same place that Facebook is: a Web platform with a bunch of good services and little presence on mobile. Just tying all those apps to a smartphone is not feasible; it needs a backbone to support it. That is why Google’s acquisition of Android in 2005 may turn out to be one of the most important acquisitions in the next 20 to 30 years of Web innovation. In 2005, it recognized that it had the makings of a very good Web platform but realized that to disseminate that platform, it also needed an operating system. It then created two: It bought Android and later built its Chrome OS.
Seven years later, Facebook is in the same place that Google was in 2005. It has a very good Web platform and is kicking around how to turn that into an operating system. The elements of a user interface and application ecosystem are in place. What Facebook does well could translate just as well into an operating system with contacts, events, photos, content dissemination, chat and messaging (though not specifically email) and payments (Credits). What Facebook does not have – and would likely have to partner with other companies to produce – are books, video, maps and navigation, a browser (rumors are that it might acquire Opera) and music (Spotify might as well be a wholly owned subsidiary of Facebook), among others.
building its own OS and hardware is the hardest option. Google did well by bringing in the Android team, a group that knew exactly what it was doing when it came to creating mobile software and tying it to hardware. Facebook does not quite have that type of luxury. It can poach people from other hardware designers, but a true one-punch acquisition of mobile experts is not as easy in 2012 as it was in 2005.
The open-source route is interesting. Tizen could use a shot in the arm, and Facebook would be a great way to do it. Tizen would immediately benefit from the Facebook platform and ecosystem
Forking Android is the easiest route. Facebook has already gone down this road with the so-called “Buffy” project and the alleged partnership with manufacturer HTC.
Partnering with an OEM like Research In Motion is a distinct possibility.
HP’s webOS is basically dead,
Then there is HTML5. From a purely theoretical perspective, this is what Facebook probably wants to do the most. But HTML5 is just not ready. The capabilities that Facebook needs to build into an OS – such as graphics rendering, device capabilities such as video/audio performance, access to contact lists and calendars, an accelerometer and more – are just not up to par and will not be for several years. Yet, as a Web-based set of standards, HTML5 makes the most sense because it would enable almost the entire Facebook platform to be layered on top of the underlying software that connects to the hardware. In many ways, building an HTML5 browser-based OS is exactly what Mozilla is doing and is similar to what Google has done with Chrome OS.
Facebook can piggyback off any number of technologies available. But, if it truly wants to be a disruptor and not just an also-ran in mobile, taking the hardest approach and creating a truly unique operating system is the best route.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Top that, cable! Verizon offers 300 Mbps home broadband
http://gigaom.com/broadband/top-that-cable-verizon-offers-300-mbps-home-broadband/
Bored with your 100 Mbps connection? Verizon plans to offer customers up to 300 Mbps down via its FiOS fiber service next month.
Verizon hasn’t yet disclosed the cost for these speeds, but all excepting the 300 Mbps service can also be bundled with Verizon’s pay TV and voice services.
Current cable technology tops out at about 100 Mbps although across the Atlantic, Virgin has taken the top speeds using cable broadband technology up to 200 Mbps.
Verizon clearly understands how people are using the Internet to consume more of their entertainment and do most of their communications. It also understands the impact of more devices in the home. For example it recommends its new 75/35 Mbps for a household that “streams HD movies to the TV, downloads or uploads video files, participates in multiplayer gaming, and has three or more Internet-connected users on multiple devices.”
With a 300 Mbps speed, consumers can download a two-hour, standard-definition movie (1.5 gigabytes) in less than 40 seconds; and a two-hour, high-definition movie (5 GB) in 2.2 minutes.
And most important are the things we don’t even know that we want to download. Fast, low-latency fiber-to-the-home connections offer the possibility of medical care in the home, video presence in HD, or maybe even your own personal holodeck. As efforts to build gigabit networks expand around the country, we’re going to see new applications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Next steps on Net Neutrality – making sure you get champagne service if that’s what you’re paying for
http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/neelie-kroes/netneutrality/
When it comes to the issue of “net neutrality” I want to ensure that Internet users can always choose full Internet access – that is, access to a robust, best-efforts Internet with all the applications you wish.
But I don’t like to intervene in competitive markets unless I am sure this is the only way to help either consumers or companies. Preferably both. In particular because a badly designed remedy may be worse than the disease – producing unforeseen harmful effects long into the future. So I wanted better data before acting on net neutrality.
BEREC has today provided the data I was waiting for. For most Europeans, their Internet access works well most of the time. But these findings show the need for more regulatory certainty and that there are enough problems to warrant strong and targeted action to safeguard consumers.
For the first time we know that at least 20%, and potentially up to half of EU mobile broadband users have contracts that allow their Internet service provider (ISP) to restrict services like VOIP (e.g. Skype) or peer-to-peer file sharing.
Around 20% of fixed operators (spread across virtually all EU member states) apply restrictions such as to limit peer-to-peer volumes at peak times. This can affect up to 95% of users in a country.
At the same time, in nearly all Member States, most if not all ISPs offer fixed and mobile Internet access services that are not subject to such restrictions. According to the BEREC figures 85% of all fixed ISPs and 76% of all mobile ISPs propose at least one unrestricted offer. So the market is generally providing choice, butthe choices are quite limited in some EU countries.
Given that BEREC’s findings highlight a problem of effective consumer choice, I will prepare recommendations to generate more real choices and end the net neutrality waiting game in Europe.
First, consumers need clear information on actual, real-life broadband speeds. Not just the speed at 3 am, but the speed at peak times. The upload as well as the download speed.
Second, consumers also need clear information on the limits of what they are paying for. Clear, quantified data ceilings are much better than vague “fair use” policies that leave too much discretion to Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
Third, consumers also need to know if they are getting Champagne or lesser sparkling wine. If it is not full Internet, it shouldn’t be marketed as such; perhaps it shouldn’t be marketed as “Internet” at all
Tomi Engdahl says:
EU Report Reveals P2P Traffic Interference By ISPs
http://digg.com/newsbar/topnews/eu_report_reveals_p2p_traffic_interference_by_isps
Hundreds of ISPs all over the world limit and restrict BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer traffic on their networks, and Europe is no exception. A new EU report sheds light on how common these practices are.
A new report released today has revealed the scale of ISP traffic management practices that result in restrictions to the open Internet. The EU report, which covers 381 ISPs serving in excess of 340 million subscribers, reveals that 21% of fixed-line broadband users across Europe are affected by ISPs restricting P2P traffic, rising to 36% in the mobile market.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Alibaba’s Linux phone pulls in one MILLION punters
Handset business buttresses bazaar’s bank balance
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/31/alibaba_aliyun_one_million_smartphones/
Chinese web tat flogger Alibaba finally has some good news to report after sales of smartphones based on its Aliyun OS hit the million sales milestone in the People’s Republic less than a year after its launch.
The e-commerce firm’s profits have been taking a hammering recently thanks to a slowing Chinese economy, investments designed to take the site upmarket and its whopping $7.1bn (£4.4bn) buy back of half of Yahoo!’s stake in the company.
The firm’s bread and butter is in B2B and C2C e-commerce and online payments, but it also sees money to be made from the huge local domestic smartphone market and launched the Linux-based Aliyun OS out of its AliCloud business in July 2011.
An IDC report last week highlighted the challenge from handset makers such as Xiamo with its MIUI platform, web rivals such as Baidu with Yi and even operators like China Unicom (woPhone).
The key for most local players as they “build fences and drive stakes into the ground” of the country’s fast-growing mobile market is to evolve lucrative revenue streams by offering domestic users a familiar Chinese interface and local services.
For Alibaba this probably means driving mobile users towards its e-commerce and payments offering
Tomi Engdahl says:
German Cable ISP First To Deliver 4700Mbps Internet Connection
http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/05/31/1230217/german-cable-isp-first-to-deliver-4700mbps-internet-connection
It’s enough to make grown IT workers cry. German cable operator Kabel Deutschland claims to have become the first provider to successfully achieve a real-world internet connection speed of 4700Mbps (Megabits per second) after they hooked up to a local school’s test account in the city of Schwerin. The ISP, which usually delivers more modest speeds of up to 100Mbps to home subscribers, used its upgraded 862MHz network, channel bonding, and the EuroDocsis 3.0 standard to achieve the stated performance.
They used 12 modems and thus 12 seperate channels which means in reality, they only transmitted about 400mbit per “subscriber” (cable).
While this is nifty, Kabel Deutschland subscribers’ bandwith is often shared, which means at peak time you don’t even get 30 of the promised 100mbit.
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tomi says:
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Does anyone else issues with loading speed?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ask Slashdot: Equipping a Company With Secure Android Phones?
http://ask.slashdot.org/story/12/05/31/1435247/ask-slashdot-equipping-a-company-with-secure-android-phones
Blackberries suck, Android’s security is left to the manufacturer (so it usually doesn’t get done right), Windows Phone 7(.5) is still not ready for the Enterprise, Symbian is dead, so are Meego and Maemo…
iPhones are locked down, have enterprise support tools, come encrypted by default. Unless you’re willing to inflict Blackberries on your users, AND pay for the BES, AND pay the per-handset CAL, iPhones are your best bet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Designing with 10GBase-T transceivers
http://www.edn.com/article/521923-Designing_with_10GBase_T_transceivers.php
Take advantage of 10GBase-T board layout and routing guidelines, power distribution and decoupling requirements, and EMI reduction design concepts to employ best practices in network designs.
As was the case with three prior generations of Ethernet, the ubiquity, the ready and familiar management tools, and the compelling cost structure are allowing 10G Ethernet to quickly dominate the computer networking scene.
Crehan Research, a leading industry analyst of data center technologies, estimates that by 2014, 10G Ethernet will overtake 1G Ethernet as the preferred network connectivity option in computer servers. And in one of its most reports on the subject, The Linley Group, another leading industry analyst, predicted robust 10GbE growth and estimated that 10GbE NIC/LAN-on-motherboard (LOM) shipments alone will surpass 16 million ports in 2014.
Several standards-based options exist for 10G Ethernet and span the gamut, from single-mode fiber to twin-ax cable. But of all the options available, 10GBase-T, which is also known as IEEE 802.3an, is arguably the most flexible, economical, backwards compatible, and user friendly 10G Ethernet connectivity option available. It was designed to operate with the familiar unshielded twisted-pair cabling technology, which is already pervasive for 1G Ethernet and can interoperate directly with it.
10GBase-T is capable of covering, with a single cable type, any distance up to 100 meters and thereby reaches 99% of the distance requirements in data centers and enterprise environments.
Tomi Engdahl says:
UN Takeover of Internet Must Be Stopped, US Warns
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/05/31/2251233/un-takeover-of-internet-must-be-stopped-us-warns
“In a rare show of bipartisan agreement, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle warned this morning that a United Nations summit in December will lead to a virtual takeover of the Internet if proposals from China, Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia are adopted.”
Called the World Conference on International Telecommunications, the summit would consider proposals including “[using] international mandates to charge certain Web destinations on a ‘per-click’ basis to fund the build-out of broadband infrastructure across the globe” and allowing “”governments to monitor and restrict content or impose economic costs upon international data flows.”
The only thing they are worried about is that the US would not control it.
Bad, or worse. Pick one.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Networking company Cisco to predict Internet traffic more than quadruple by the year 2016.
Network of terminals and internet connections to predict the amount of the company nearly double in five years.
By 2016, Internet traffic volume is projected to 1.3 tsettabytes.
By 2016, the world is projected to have nearly 18.9 billion online devices (an average of 2.5 for each device the world per capita). Corresponding to the number of devices in 2011 was 10.9 billion.
By 2016, Internet users will be 3.4 billion, which is about 45 percent of the world’s estimated population.
- In 2011, PC-devices produced 94 percent of consumers use the Internet. Percentage drops to 81 percent in 2016. This just shows what a great impact on mobile and portable devices in consumer and business Internet use
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/tietoverkkoyhtio+ennustaa+nettiliikenne+nelinkertaistuu+lahivuosina/a812969?s=r&wtm=tietoviikko/-01062012&
Tomi Engdahl says:
China overestimates 3G numbers by HALF
Domestic 3G/landline hybrid counted as pure 3G by mistake
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/04/china_3g_numbers_lowered/
The Chinese government has been forced into an embarrassing u-turn after admitting that previously estimated figures for 3G subscriptions in the country were double what they should have been.
The latest figures proudly announced by MIIT vice minister Shang Bing last month put the figure at 152 million, which means the actual number is more like 75 million, although Marbridge puts it a bit higher at around 80m.
The blame for the confusion was levelled very squarely at the world’s biggest mobile operator, China Mobile.
China Mobile’s numbers were comprised mainly of terminal sales, which included a hefty number of wireless landline phones based on its home-grown TD-SCDMA 3G standard.
Apart from not being true mobile phones, these devices are only capable of basic voice and text functions, said Marbridge.
Most users still have 2G or basic, non-internet connected devices, with Nokia and Symbian the leading handset maker and platform provider respectively.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The European Telecommunications Standardization Search has approved Apple ‘s proposal for a new SIM card standard.
The new size is officially called 4ff, and is roughly 40 percent less than the current smallest sim-cards.
4ff standard card dimensions are 12.3 x 8.8 x 0.67 mm
Source:
http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/apple+voitti+nanosimtaistelun++nokian+ehdotus+havisi/a813311?s=r&wtm=tietoviikko/-04062012&
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung open sources Galaxy S3 source code
Impressive turnaround
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2181708/samsung-sources-galaxy-s3-source-code
SMARTPHONE VENDOR Samsung has open sourced its Android 4.0 operating system implementation found on its Galaxy S3 smartphones.
The firm has open sourced its Android operating system source code less than a week after launching the device.
Samsung’s decision not to hang around open sourcing its Android code is very welcome and should be a lesson to others. Also Samsung’s actions highlight that revenue generation is not hampered by open sourcing code, despite what some companies might try to lead you to believe.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SMS Will Remain More Popular Than Mobile Messaging Apps over Next Five Years
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/54641.php?source=rss
Mobile operators’ SMS revenues may be under pressure from mobile messaging apps such as WhatsApp, iMessage and others, but Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts that mobile operators will still generate a total of US$722.7 billion in revenues from SMS between 2011 and 2016.
“There will not be a uniform decline in mobile operators’ SMS traffic and revenues as a result of the adoption and use of over-the-top messaging services,” says Pamela Clark-Dickson, senior analyst, Mobile Content & Applications, at Informa Telecoms & Media. “Factors such as the operators’ pricing strategies, and the penetration of smartphones and mobile broadband in a market will determine how quickly and to what extent substitution occurs,” she adds.
“For example, operators offering integrated tariffs that include a balanced proportion of voice, SMS and mobile data, are continuing to see growth in their SMS traffic and less impact on their SMS revenues,” says Clark-Dickson.
While Informa is forecasting either slowing growth or even a small decline in person-to-person SMS revenues in some developed regions and countries, total global SMS revenues will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 3% over the next five years.
Globally, Informa forecasts that SMS traffic will total 9.4 trillion messages by 2016, up from 5.9 trillion messages in 2011. However, SMS’s share of global mobile messaging traffic will fall from 64.1% in 2011, to 42.1% in 2016. At the same time, global mobile instant messaging traffic will increase from 1.6 trillion messages in 2011 to 7.7 trillion messages in 2016, doubling its share of global messaging traffic from 17.1% in 2011 to 34.6% in 2016.
MMS remains a lucrative service for mobile operators, punching above its weight in terms of revenues. While global MMS traffic is expected to represent just 1.7% of global messaging traffic in 2016, at 387.5 billion events, global MMS revenues will represent 10.6% of global messaging revenues within the same timeframe, at US$20.7 billion.
However, mobile e-mail will be the second highest-revenue generator for mobile operators by 2016, generating US$32 billion in revenues, or 16.3% of total global messaging revenues. “Mobile e-mail is an important revenue-generating service for mobile operators, largely because they offer it as a service bundled with a mobile data plan,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
BT to have 500K WiFi hotspots available for 2012 Olympic Games
http://www.fiercetelecom.com/story/bt-have-500k-wifi-hotspots-available-2012-olympic-games/2012-05-30
BT reports that is on track to reach its goal of having 500,000 available WiFi hotspots in London to serve the 2012 Olympic Games.
To date, the service provider has deployed over 475,000 hotspots inside a mix of thousands of London-based independent businesses and homes in addition to outdoor hotspots across Westminster.
As the sole provider of public WiFi to the Olympic Park, the service will complement existing 3G wireless networks with unlimited data, meaning that users won’t have to worry about going over their wireless operator’s data allowance.
During the games, users will be able to access the services via 1,000 access points across nine Olympic venues
The service will be available for free to users of Android, iOS and other smartphone devices via BT’s agreements with UK and international network providers.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
EU Telecoms sector: change is needed to relaunch growth
http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?C=0&ID=473955
Charles River Associates warned against using lower copper prices to promote fibre investments as this may have the opposite effect.
“Europe’s telecoms sector is at crossroads. Operators have to move from voice to data driven business models in order to monetize rapidly increasing data traffic and reverse the declining revenue trend.”
“It is now the time for us within the industry to cooperate and look at what we share rather than at what makes us different. These are the conditions to make our sector stronger and more competitive on the world scene”
“In Asia and the US the competition takes place on the basis of innovation. In Europe, too often excessively intrusive regulation blocks innovation. Such a situation creates a paradox: hampering innovation is hampering competition. In Europe, the way rules are applied does not enable operators to innovate.”
Despite unprecedented growth in data traffic, driven by over the top applications and services, and continuous increase in broadband subscriptions, the overall revenue of the EU telecoms sector has declined by 1.4 and 2% in 2010 and 2011. Revenue is estimated to continue falling by 1.8% a year until 2015 unless operators would change their business models to generate new revenue streams.
Regulated prices on copper networks should moreover remain stable and should be allowed to rise where costs increase to provide continuous support for fibre investment. Speaking at the ETNO/Total Telecom Summit, Charles River Associates warned against using lower copper prices to promote fibre investments as this may have the opposite effect
Finally, ETNO calls on the Commission to remove remaining obstacles to the deployment of new online services, such as connected TV or content, which will generate new revenue streams and improve the business case for investment.
Tomi says:
IDC: Windows Phone will rise alongside the Apple
Research firm IDC predicts the global mobile phone market to grow by just over four percent.
Phone number of deliveries would be increased this year to 1.8 billion (last year 1.7 billion)
Basic phones deliveries would be reduced ten per cent
Deliveries of smartphones on the other hand would increase to 686 million units (39 per cent).
Android operating system would remain number one
IDC predicts strong growth in Nokia’s smartphones using Windows Phonelle, which would rise to five-year period, from five percent to about 19 per cent.
Apple’s iPhone would maintain its market share
Source:
http://www.digitoday.fi/mobiili/2012/06/06/idc-windows-phone-nousee-applen-rinnalle/201230955/66?rss=6